Mention Sileby in a conversation and you won’t inspire thoughts of great beauty. Sileby is known, these days, for its swamps and for its council tip. Well we lost the tip to Mountsorrel, but between our house and the river is a swamp that has become a well respected nature reserve. Cossington Meadows is home to these Exmoor ponies, as well as to barn owls, egrets, lapwings and enough geese and swans to make quite a theatre at dusk.